Today, I’m excited to announce new roles for Eric Rudder and Harry Shum. Eric will take on a newly created role as Executive Vice President, Advanced Strategy, and Harry will take on Eric’s current responsibilities as Executive Vice President, Technology & Research. Both Eric and Harry will report to me and both changes take effect in mid-December.

Eric has led our Advanced Strategy & Research group for the past year. In that time, the team has tightened the connection between our incredible MSR work and the devices and services we are bringing to market while advancing the ball on a number of critical strategy and policy issues. As we continue our transformation to a company that delivers high value activities through devices and services it is critical that a senior leader is accountable for certain key, cross company technology initiatives. In this new role, Eric will do just that.

Harry Shum currently leads Bing engineering and prior, he led our MSR China team. He is uniquely positioned to drive exceptional forward-looking research that pushes the frontiers of computer science, while also driving impactful technology transfer through deep connections with our product teams.

MSR has been an amazing source of innovation for Microsoft and the industry, and our commitment to cutting edge R&D is as strong as ever. You only have to look at some of our big technology bets like Xbox, Bing or Windows Azure to see the great collaboration that MSR has brought to help accelerate our efforts to deliver differentiated devices and services to our customers.

With Harry moving to this new role, the Bing engineering leaders will report directly to Qi Lu on an interim basis. They will not miss a beat as they continue the strong momentum in growing share, improving financials, and leveraging search as a strategic differentiator across our devices and services.

Please join me in thanking both Eric and Harry for their leadership and congratulating them on their new roles.